Congressman looking to investigate cheating scandal

[Inside Pitch]

Lol ... and people believed nothing would come of this....  Don't look now but it might get a lot bigger and there may yet be further action.

https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/illinois-congressman-hearings-astros-cheating-scandal/533741

[Revad]

I’m not seeing this as a good thing.  Plenty of smart people in Congress I’m sure but my level of confidence that they can help baseball is very low. 

[Inside Pitch]

This is the absolute last thing MLB wants...

[Revad]

And the last thing it needs

[Blarg]

1 hour ago, Inside Pitch said:

This is the absolute last thing MLB wants...

Seems like a Reagan quote is appropriate here but I wouldn't want to ruffle feathers.

[yk9001]

9 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Seems like a Reagan quote is appropriate here but I wouldn't want to ruffle feathers.

The one where he calls black people monkeys? Yeah, that wouldn't be too good.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/ronald-reagans-racist-conversation-richard-nixon/595102/

Edited January 18, 2020 by yk9001

[eaterfan]

25 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Seems like a Reagan quote is appropriate here but I wouldn't want to ruffle feathers.

Yes, private enterprise (MLB) has clearly shown it's totally capable of investigating its own malfeasance in this instance. Everyone seems very confident in the completeness and thoroughness of this investigation and their faith in the fairness of baseball is totally restored. This is just like when MLB totally cleaned up P.E.D.s without any government intervention.

[Blarg]

There is no reason, whatsoever, to involve congress and federal spending on this issue. 

[eaterfan]

4 minutes ago, Blarg said:

There is no reason, whatsoever, to involve congress and federal spending on this issue. 

$1 billion was bet on baseball last year. You don't think the public has interest in ensuring the outcomes are fair? 

You think that MLB is motivated to do a fair and thorough investigation? You think Manfred can hand out punishments to his bosses if the results of the investigation merits it? 

[arch stanton]

Just kill the anti-trust exemption and be done with it

[Taylor]

It's cute when politicians get involved in pro sports.

[Stradling]

I trust MLB to solve its problems much more than I’d trust congress to do so.  When was the last time we said, ”thank god congress got involved”. 
 

I’d think even the threat of congress getting involved would force the hand of MLB to reopen the investigation.  

[Claude]

Jim Crane will call on his buddy Obama and then send in more donations to the DNC and everything will quickly get squelched. F all of those grandstanding politicians. 

[Inside Pitch]

30 minutes ago, arch stanton said:

Just kill the anti-trust exemption and be done with it

This is the only reason MLB ever actually does anything..   Keeping their anti-trust exemption is their primary concern and the likely reason they put out a gag order on teams.   

It's also why politicians pretend they care.

[Stradling]

You do have to wonder if there simply isn’t enough evidence other than hearsay to the buzzer rumors.  

Here are my thoughts:

Team mates are loyal to one another.  So getting them to rat on each other would be difficult.  The only names really brought up were Alex Cora and Beltran, both who are no longer with the organization.  

Players were offered immunity for information on the cheating scandal, but it seems that it is more the procedure of the cheating and not the players that were cheating.  

Now there are rumors of the buzzers, but if you can’t get anyone to actually admit anyone on the team was using them then how do you prove it?  Obviously the threat of being permanently banned holds some weight, but if no one speaks then it is all speculation or hearsay, whether it happened or not.  Which player has come out and said they know the Astros players were using them?  I have only heard the rumors from guys like Jomboy and incarcerated bob.  If an MLB player says they heard a rumor then they could start tracking down that rumor.  I am not sure I have read if guys like Bauer or Clevinger have heard from other players about buzzers. 

Oh and immunity only counts if you are being truthful.  So if they are caught in a lie, or if they leave out important details, like buzzers, then they can be punished, I’d assume.  

[Second Base]

I do NOT trust MLB to clean up it's own issues. It's a corrupt system led by corrupt individuals, and the only things that motivate change are money or consequences.

I also do NOT trust the US government to fix pretty much anything at all. 

Why would I want one corrupt entity to police another corrupt entity? That's just stupid. 

Congressman: "We need to look into this cheating scandal in Major League Baseball."

Manfred: "Here's a million dollars."

Congressman: "Looks like everything checks out here."

[floplag]

Congress involvement is the last thing we need, now nothing is going to get done. 
Or it will somehow be blamed on Trump.
Or both.
and still no players will be fined or suspended.
and it will be blamed on racism.

[eaterfan]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

I trust MLB to solve its problems much more than I’d trust congress to do so.  When was the last time we said, ”thank god congress got involved”. 
 

I’d think even the threat of congress getting involved would force the hand of MLB to reopen the investigation.  

Do you not remember the PED scandal at all? 

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, eaterfan said:

Do you not remember the PED scandal at all? 

Yes I do.  

I also remember everything the government mismanaged.  

Who has more interest in solving baseball problems, the league or the government?  If the betting stops or the popularity decreases then MLB will solve its issues.  

Congress, like baseball, can be bought.  

Baseball has its problems, no doubt.  But on the list of things I want Congress to focus on, baseball is WAY down the list.  

[GregAlso]

32 minutes ago, Stradling said:

You do have to wonder if there simply isn’t enough evidence other than hearsay to the buzzer rumors.  

Here are my thoughts:

Team mates are loyal to one another.  So getting them to rat on each other would be difficult.  The only names really brought up were Alex Cora and Beltran, both who are no longer with the organization.  

Players were offered immunity for information on the cheating scandal, but it seems that it is more the procedure of the cheating and not the players that were cheating.  

Now there are rumors of the buzzers, but if you can’t get anyone to actually admit anyone on the team was using them then how do you prove it?  Obviously the threat of being permanently banned holds some weight, but if no one speaks then it is all speculation or hearsay, whether it happened or not.  Which player has come out and said they know the Astros players were using them?  I have only heard the rumors from guys like Jomboy and incarcerated bob.  If an MLB player says they heard a rumor then they could start tracking down that rumor.  I am not sure I have read if guys like Bauer or Clevinger have heard from other players about buzzers. 

Oh and immunity only counts if you are being truthful.  So if they are caught in a lie, or if they leave out important details, like buzzers, then they can be punished, I’d assume.  

 

 

 

Bauer has tweeted about the buzzers since Jomboy’s tweet. He said he has heard this from a few players this happened too. MLB hasn’t done much investigation when players accused the Astros or Sox of cheating until it came out in the media. Only once the Athletic reported it did they do much serious investigation.
 

MLB’s investigators have no subpoena power and can force nobody to testify. This makes investigations very difficult. Furthermore if a player lies there is no real consequences unless MLB can fully prove it and levy a suspension that they can make hold up under MLBPA defense of the player. 
 

Now the issue of government involvement in this is murky at best. When they got involved over PEDs that made at least some sense since those were a controlled substance regulated by the government. So in some sense, the players were breaking federal law and the league wasn’t stopping it. In that situation government oversight could at least argued as being about people breaking the law and not being punished. In this situation no law is being broken, federal or state.
 

I don’t see what pretext the government could use to question the league about this. Even the exemption the league has doesn’t make sense as a pretext. I’d welcome the use of subpoena powers and making people testify under oath to get to the bottom of it (as if congress ever gets to the bottom of anything) but using those powers here seems to have no legal basis. It would be like a local city council investigating cheating at the private chess tournament in town. Not cool that people cheated but why are they investigating it.

[hangin n wangin]

47 minutes ago, Second Base said:

I do NOT trust MLB to clean up it's own issues. It's a corrupt system led by corrupt individuals, and the only things that motivate change are money or consequences.

I also do NOT trust the US government to fix pretty much anything at all. 

Why would I want one corrupt entity to police another corrupt entity? That's just stupid. 

Congressman: "We need to look into this cheating scandal in Major League Baseball."

Manfred: "Here's a million dollars."

Congressman: "Looks like everything checks out here."

True. Sad to say, and whether people want to believe it or not, corruption is literally everywhere and in most cases it’s a lot worse than many people even realize. The fact is a lot of people are just terrible.

[Jay]

58 minutes ago, GregAlso said:

Bauer has tweeted about the buzzers since Jomboy’s tweet.

Bauer again?

[Lou]

This is great. I love watching a shit-show, especially if it involves unscrupulous, lying cheaters.

Thanks, Clevinger and Bauer!

[ettin]

6 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

This is the absolute last thing MLB wants...

MLB's fault though. I really think the last CBA was so bad for the Players Association and then they, MLB and the players, bumble and stumble their way into this mess. They need to clean out the trash on both sides and level this out now or else we will not only have a Congressional investigation, we will have a Player's strike and a subsequent mess following this one.

An adult needs to take charge and clean house just like everything else right now.

[AngelsFaninGA]

6 hours ago, Revad said:

Plenty of smart people in Congress

That is a very bold statement